Today’s News - Wednesday, March 7, 2018
EDITOR'S NOTE: It's a Pritzker Prize surprise (again) this year! We selected a few stories by some of our faves that go beyond a rehash of the press release. The RAIC also announced a 99-year-old firm as its 2018 Architectural Firm Award recipient, and the 2018 Isamu Noguchi Award goes to an industrial designer and a landscape architect. And don't miss McGuigan's call for #MeToo/Time's Up movements in architecture. And now - we're declaring a snow day!
● Hawthorne weighs in on the Pritzker Prize's "surprise choice," 90-year-old Indian architect Balkrishna Doshi, who "has made affordable housing a focus of his work - an architectural mindset that I have elsewhere referred to (with more than a little affection) as 'boring' is also clear to see in Doshi's patient and unruffled approach."
● Wainwright recalls his visit to Doshi's studio in Ahmedabad in 2009: "It felt more like a village square than the office of an architecture practice."
● Holland has a conversation with Doshi, who described the Pritzker decision as "a great surprise," and "insisted on putting the achievement in the context of India's urban and economic development - reflecting a commitment to using architecture as a force for public good."
● The official 2018 Pritzker Architecture Prize website (tons of info and miles of amazing images!): Doshi's "work in architecture to affect humanity is deeply personal, responsive, and meaningful - his architecture is both poetic and functional."
● Meanwhile, the RAIC gives Toronto-based RDHA the 2018 Architectural Firm Award: Founded in 1919 and "has in recent years undergone a successful renewal," the firm is praised for its "commitment to making even ordinary projects into delightful and visually interesting architecture."
● Meanwhile #2: The 2018 Isamu Noguchi Award goes to industrial designer Naoto Fukasawa of 21_21 Design Sight, and landscape architect Edwina von Gal.
● McGuigan ponders where architecture's #MeToo movement is: "It's time the profession took a leaf from Hollywood's Time's Up initiative - the field of architecture in the 21st century will be diminished if it doesn't have a reputation for fairness or reflect the diversity of the people that it serves."
● "Ahead of International Women's Day tomorrow," ArchitectureAU profiles five "women behind Australia's built future."
● Malkin offers a great profile of Tatiana Bilbao, who "brings empathy to the task of designing low-cost housing - infusing a vision of architecture as a platform that people can use to improve their quality of life according to their own needs, rather than those mapped out for them by planners and developers" (maybe next year's Pritzker Laureate?).
● Eyefuls of Adjaye's design for the National Cathedral of Ghana in Accra, "a place of worship and a community hub" that will include a 5,000-seat auditorium and Africa's first bible museum (and lots more).
● AIA minces no words in its take on Trump's proposed steel and aluminum tariffs with "a striking warning that a rise in material costs could mean major losses for the U.S. economy" - and "limit the range of options architects can use while adhering to budgetary constraints for a building."
● While tariffs may - or may not - go into effect, a new report says "demand for commercial construction will increase," with a skilled workforce shortage leading to contractors increased "use of efficient building approaches such as prefabrication and modular building."
● Green with good news for landscape architecture services: it's valued at $2.7 billion in the U.S.: "In case anyone doubts the value of the creative economy, the NEA and BEA's data should put their concerns to rest."
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Christopher Hawthorne: In another surprise choice, Pritzker Prize honors 90-year-old Indian architect Balkrishna Doshi: I don’t find the selection quite as surprising as last year’s, when the Pritzker...went to the Catalan trio Rafael Aranda, Carme Pigem and Ramón Vilalta/RCR Arquitectes...Like the 2016 laureate, Chile’s Alejandro Aravena, Doshi has made affordable housing...a focus of his work...an architectural mindset that I have elsewhere referred to (with more than a little affection) as “boring” is also clear to see in Doshi’s patient and unruffled approach. -- Le Corbusier; Louis Kahn; Vastushilpa [images]- Los Angeles Times |
Oliver Wainwright: Balkrishna Doshi, 90, wins Pritzker prize for architecture: The Le Corbusier disciple, who harnessed modernism to Indian culture, has been praised for an architecture “that is serious, never flashy or a follower of trends”: Known for his pioneering work in low-cost housing, BV Doshi became one of the most influential architects of post-independence India...I visited his studio in Ahmedabad in 2009...It felt more like a village square than the office of an architecture practice. -- Louis Kahn [images]- Guardian (UK) |
Oscar Holland: Balkrishna Doshi named India's first winner of the Pritzker Prize: The architect and urban planner, who turned 90 last year...during a phone interview from Ahmedabad...insisted on putting the achievement in the context of India's urban and economic development...Doshi differs from recent Laureates by having no overseas landmarks to his name. While he has regularly taught abroad, the vast majority his work has taken place within India, reflecting a commitment to using architecture as a force for public good...one of his most celebrated designs is that of his own studio, called Sangath... -- Vastu Shilpa Consultants [images]- CNN Style |
Balkrishna Doshi Receives the 2018 Pritzker Architecture Prize: His work in architecture to affect humanity is deeply personal, responsive, and meaningful: Architect, urban planner, and educator for the past 70 years...Doshi´s architecture is both poetic and functional. + Selected Works + Jury Citation; etc. -- Le Corbusier; Louis Khan [images]- The Hyatt Foundation |
RAIC announces 2018 Architectural Firm Award recipient: RDHA, a Toronto-based architecture studio that has specialized in public buildings for almost a century, and has in recent years undergone a successful renewal...The jury also praised [its] commitment to making even ordinary projects...into delightful and visually interesting architecture...Founded in 1919, RDHA is one of Canada’s oldest practices and is also known as Rounthwaite Dick and Hadley Architects. [link to images]- Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) |
Japanese industrial designer Naoto Fukasawa [21_21 Design Sight] and American landscape designer Edwina von Gal named 2018 Isamu Noguchi Award recipients: ...issued annually to individuals whose body of work expresses a spirit of innovation, global consciousness, and a commitment to East/West cultural exchange...- Archinect |
Cathleen McGuigan: Where Is Architecture’s #MeToo Movement? ...the design profession has been strangely quiet: ...attempts to document new cases of predatory or abusive actions in architecture are, so far, proving difficult. That doesn’t mean they’re not happening...Women in architecture don’t yet have safety in numbers...the Beverly Willis Architecture Foundation is proposing that the AIA specifically call out sexual harassment in its Code of Ethics...It’s time the profession...took a leaf from Hollywood’s Time’s Up initiative...the field of architecture in the 21st century will be diminished if it doesn’t have a reputation for fairness or reflect the diversity of the people that it serves.- Architectural Record |
The women behind Australia’s built future: Ahead of International Women’s Day tomorrow, which this year is themed “#PressforProgress,” ArchitectureAU speaks to the women at the helm of five highly anticipated architectural projects - from a new model of housing to vast and complex educational and healthcare facilities. -- Belinda Koopman/Peter Stutchbury Architecture; Meaghan Dwyer/John Wardle Architects; Bonnie Herring/Fairley Batch/Breathe Architecture; Peta Heffernan/Liminal Studio; Abbie Galvin/BVN [images]- ArchitectureAU (Australia) |
Elisabeth Malkin: Matching Architecture to People’s Needs, by Listening to Them First: Tatiana Bilbao brings empathy to the task of designing low-cost housing, overturning convention as a result: ...infusing a vision of architecture as a platform that people can use to improve their quality of life according to their own needs, rather than those mapped out for them by planners and developers...She is part of a generation of younger Mexican architects who have moved away from iconic, mannered work...and adopted a more inclusive approach based on dialogue. [images]- New York Times |
David Adjaye unveils plans for National Cathedral of Ghana in Accra: ...a place of worship and a community hub...will contain a series of chapels, a baptistery, a 5,000-seat auditorium, a music school, art gallery, and Africa's first bible museum...will also see the development of a new ceremonial route that will link the cathedral to other landmarks nearby, including Accra's State House and Independence Square. [images]- Dezeen |
AIA speaks out against Trump’s proposed steel and aluminum tariffs: ...will have negative effects on the American design and construction industries...a striking warning that a rise in material costs could mean major losses for the U.S. economy..."Inflating the cost of materials will limit the range of options architects can use while adhering to budgetary constraints for a building." -- Carl Elefante; Robert Ivy- The Architect's Newspaper |
Dodge: Contractors Turning to Alternative Construction Solutions Amid Workforce Shortage: To offset the lack of skilled workers, contractors increase use of efficient building approaches such as prefabrication and modular building. -- USG Corporation + U.S. Chamber of Commerce Commercial Construction Index [link to full report]- ForConstructionPros.com |
Jared Green: Landscape Architecture Services in the U.S. Valued at $2.7 Billion: According to the most recent data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis and National Endowment for the Arts...In case anyone doubts the value of the creative economy, the NEA and BEA’s data should put their concerns to rest.- The Dirt/American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) |
ANN feature: Vladimir Belogolovsky: One-on-One: Craig Bassam and Scott Fellows: "If a product is designed and crafted well, it should not go out of fashion." BassamFellows' "Craftsman Modern" is based on the partners' devotion to Modernist architecture, high-level craftsmanship, and the use of beautiful, natural materials. [images]- ArchNewsNow.com |
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